Mandarin-Gold (21 page)

MacPherson thrust out his right foot. Crutchley tripped and as he went down, Gunn brought up his right knee into his face. Crutchley rolled uselessly on the deck, doubled up with pain. Then he slowly staggered to his feet. In.his right hand, he held a knife.

'Possibly. But
he
gave me a chance, and I lived. He can have the same opportunity. On my terms. First, drop your knife or I will shoot your hand off.'

Crutchley straightened up, his eyes like live coals in his head. Slowly, his fingers opened. The knife clattered down on the deck.

'Get up forrard,' ordered Gunn, jerking his pistol at him. 'And keep your hands on top of your head.'

They walked up the gently sloping deck under the giant mast. Water chuckled at a secret joke beneath the bows; the huge painted figurehead stared at the shore and saw nothing.

'Turn around,' said Gunn. 'Now, no argument, and no discussion. You either accept my terms, or you don't. If you don't, I'll shoot you here, where there are no witnesses, and say it was in self-defence.'

He put his left hand in his pocket, separated his father's letter from the envelope, took out the envelope and a stub of pencil.

'I will put these down on the deck between us,' he said, 'and then I will back away six paces. You will pick them up and write what I tell you.'

'Now write this,' ordered Gunn. ‘I
,
Richard Crutchley, hereby give and bequeath to Dr Robert Gunn my entire shareholding in Crutchley & Company. Signed freely this day, July 11th, 1833. Richard Crutchley. Witness — Leave a space for that, Fernandes will witness it.'

'You are ruining me,' said Crutchley in a small protesting voice, as he wrote.

'I could have killed you,' Gunn reminded him, as he picked up the envelope and the pencil. They walked back in silence to the others. Gunn handed the paper to Fernandes.

'This is mutiny,' said Crutchley bitterly. 'Mutiny and armed robbery. The Parsee will never allow this. You'll hang for this, Gunn.'

‘I am,' said Mackereth earnestly. 'I assure you I am. A most loyal friend. I begged Crutchley to send the boat back for you at Namoa, but he refused. Captain Fernandes knows that, don't you, captain?'

Fernandes nodded.

'Yes, I know that. It is true, Dr Gunn.'

‘I am pleased to hear it. Now you, captain, should be pleased to hear that for the time being I am leaving you to command this vessel. I did not cure your stomach pains for nothing. We are going on up the coast as Mr Crutchley intended. We will sell our mud, then we shall return to Macao.'

'Very good, doctor.'

Fernandes climbed up to the wheelhouse and began to shout orders. The sails unfurled, and the breeze filled them. The tall ship bent slightly as she slid through the shining sea. Behind them, the longboat shrank in the distance to a toy.

'Now,' said MacPherson to Gunn. 'What about that treatment you promised me? And I've got a confession to make. I have brought my woman Ling Fai aboard.'

Gunn saw Ling Fai's face for the first time, and it was beautiful; an almond-coloured skin, a nervous shy smile around her mouth, her eyes dark and surprisingly wide, like sloes. She had an air of fresh innocence and laughter about her that was strangely appealing. Gunn could see the outline of her small breasts and the pointed nipples beneath the thin material of her shirt; he thought suddenly of the Parsee's daughter.

'You've not given
her
what you think you have?' he asked MacPherson anxiously.

'Then I'll keep your secret,' said Gunn. 'You will have your treatment. But first let us examine our cargo. I'm a merchant first now and a physician second.'

MacPherson ordered the crew to open the first hatch, and they peered, down through the square opening at the piles of boxes of light mango-wood,_ each branded, 'Patna Opium' and the trademark of a heart divided into four, bearing the letters U.E.I.C. These initials stood for United East India Company, a mark so highly regarded that it was a guarantee of high quality. No merchant would bother to examine or query any package that bore it.

'Where shall we try for our first customers?' asked Gunn.

'We're asking for trouble if we stay close,' said MacPherson. 'I hear a new local governor has just taken over in Whang-pi, about fifty miles north. He should be willing to trade, for his appointment will have cost him a fortune to purchase.'

'Never mind them,' said Gunn airily. 'What if
I
object to
them
being there?'

Mackereth opened his mouth to speak, and then swallowed his words. Events were happening too quickly for him, and he felt fear's teeth gnaw his stomach. He went below to his cabin, and poured a comforting five fingers of Queen Anne. Truly the ways of the Lord were wonderful to behold, he told himself. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters: these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Psalm One hundred and seven, verse twenty-three.

Gunn, who h ~had believed to be dead, had come back from the grave. And likewise Crutchley, his tormentor, had been removed. He closed his eyes and mouthed a hoarse prayer of thanks to God. Then he poured another whisky, and a third after that.

The
Hesperides
sailed on. It was early morning when they sighted the other clipper. She was much larger than the
Hesperides,
her black hull freshly tarred, three masts sharply raked, varnish gleaming like glass, white sails neatly furled. A gaggle of local boats bobbed busily around her. Fernandes lowered his glasses and turned to Gunn.

'The
Bosphorus,'
he announced. 'One of Jardine's fleet, as Mackereth said. Captain Ferguson commanding.'

Gunn glanced up at the flag. Just for a moment, he was tempted to haul it down and hoist the Stars and Stripes, or the Danish white cross on a red back. Then he dismissed the idea; they would start as he meant, to continue.

'We'll go in under the Jack' he said. 'Bring her alongside within hailing distance. Anchor her fore and aft, and leave the rest to me.'

'Open all hatches,' bellowed MacPherson. The Chinese leapt to their task. Rope ladders dropped on either side. The
Hesperides
now pointed towards the shore, thirty feet from the
Bosphorus.

'What is the usual procedure?' Gunn asked MacPherson in a low voice.

'Generally, the ship waits until the Chinese send out someone to see what price we are asking.'

Gunn remembered the wine Crutchley had served to the mandarin, and ordered a cabin boy to bring up two bottles of claret, and half a dozen glasses.

A Scottish voice hailed them from the
Bosphorus.

'I think not. If you do you will ruin the market for both of us. We have paid our
cumsha
— our bribes. Why not go farther up the coast?'

'Because I want to stay here.'

'Who are
you,
sir? Where's Captain Fernandes? And Mr Crutchley?'

'Captain Fernandes is in the wheelhouse. And Mr Crutchley has made over the shares in his company to me. My name is Gunn. Dr Gunn.'

Captain Ferguson lowered his speaking trumpet and turned to one of his officers, who focused his glass on the
Hesperides.

Gunn did not reply, but went down to meet the mandarin, a fat man with hands folded in his loose sleeves, eyes like slits in a bladder of white lard, waxed black moustachios reaching down below his chin.

'Speak to him in his lingo,' Gunn told Mackereth. As he began to talk in a high-pitched chatter, the mandarin bowed and answered. Mackereth translated.

'He says they are paying ten dollars a pound for mud from the
Bosphorus.'

'Tell him it's our pleasure to sell it to him at nine dollars.'

'He will take twenty chests. But he does not wish to spoil relations with the
Bosphorus.'

'Tell him that he will make friends with us. That whatever the
Bosphorus
charges, we will always charge less. Then let him put his money on the deck, and get the chests out of the hold.'

More sampans bumped frail bows against the tarred hull of the
Hesperides.
Out came ropes on swinging wooden cranes; down into the sampans went the boxes. Ten minutes later, Captain Ferguson of the
Bosphorus
shouted again.

'You're undercutting us, sir. Don't you know the agreed price is ten?'

'Your
agreed price. Not mine.'

Gunn poured out glasses of wine for the mandarin, then for Mackereth and MacPherson and for himself.

They drank a toast to their future business relationship. He was enjoying himself; he felt fulfilled, relaxed, content.

It was as though he had been searching blindly all his life for such a situation, and now he wanted to savour every separate second: the glittering sea, the shouting coolies, the bowing blandness of the mandarin, the flag whackering away at the masthead, the annoyance of the other captain; especially the annoyance of the other captain. Ferguson was shouting again now.

'We have specific orders to trade here, to make new contacts and I am going to carry them out, whatever you may do. We are lowering our price to eight dollars.'

'Tell the mandarin he can have another twenty crates at seven,' Gunn told Mackereth quickly. 'And if he takes forty, well give him the lot at six and a half dollars, last price.'

Mackereth translated; the mandarin nodded his head. More boxes were lowered into the sampans. Gunn waited until this news percolated back to Captain Ferguson, a process that only took a few minutes.

'I demand that you desist from this ruinous behaviour, 'Ferguson shouted angrily.

MacPherson handed Gunn a speaking trumpet.